Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and surprise photo opportunities

Today started off early as the kids were up before 5 am thanks to some residual jetlag. We went to the Forbidden City to start the day. Much of it is being rennovated for the 2008 Olympics so some of the more well known views were covered by scaffolding but it was still an amazing place to visit. A. and X. were very popular with the Chinese people who were visting the Forbidden City as well. Anytime we stopped walking someone would come up to pose their kids with my kids and take a picture. Most of the time, none of the kids really wanted to pose (It reminded me of taking American kids to sit on Santa's lap when they don't really want to) but that did not stop the parents. We went to lunch at a local restuarant where we were able to sample many more traditional Chinese meals. (I am still not feeling 100% but everyone else said the food was wonderful) After lunch, we stopped at a pearl market and saw the how fresh water pearl grow in the oysters and we were able to purchase some pearls. And our day ended at the Summer Palace. Unfortuately, X. fell asleep in the car on the way back from the Summer Palace and he was pretty much out for the night (at 5:00) We tried to keep the boys up, but no matter what we did they couldnt stay awake past 7:00- even McDonalds and cookies didn't really get them awake. OF course that meant that X. was up at 2am and A. up at 4am. It is now 6 am and I have been up for almost 5 hours already- I thnk that after all our tours today- we will be visiting the pool to keep the boys up to a decent hour (now if I could just stay up...)

We are getting emails of the comments that people are leaving so please keep leaving them. Hopefully in XI'an we will have easier access to email and I will be able to get all the comments posted to the site.

We made it!

Well it took us until 3:30 before we could get to bed the night before we had to leave for the airport at 5:45 (which made for a fun start to the trip for B. and I) but we did make it. The kids did fairly well on flight flight considering that A. announed he was bored within the first 90 minutes of a 14 hour flight. The descent and landing into Beijing was the worst that B. and I have ever been on (ond we have both travel internationally more than once) Poor X. announced that his belly felt bad and he was going to throw up- he was not wrong so as we had to deal with that while trying not do the same thing. My advice for those of you waiting to travel, especially if you are taking younger kids- bring additional clothes in your carry-on and if you can swing it upgrade at least to premium economy- it would have been worth the extra money for the extra room. It is still a holiday in China so traffic and crowds in Beijing are smaller than usual. We spent the first day hanging around the hotel as no one felt up to leaving the room. (bring snack type foods at least for the first day so you don't have to go out if you don't want to) B. and A. walked to a local grocery store to stock up on bottled water and A. was excited to find skittles candy. He informed me that they have the same candy in China as we have at home (a fact that will delight his first grade class I am sure
Today we are touring the Summer Palace and Forbidden City. Goggle (and blogger) are blocked at least where we are so we are having difficulties posting to the blog but B., resident computer whiz, has found a solution- we will be trying to add photos tonight. So bear with us while we work through some technical difficulties

after 19 months how can we be not ready

I had planned to post the finished pictures from the construction for this last post before we leave but... as always things didn't work out quite as planned. We were almost packed and starting to finish everything up when the dog cut his tail on something and B. has spent the last 3 hours at the emergency vet. So now it is 12:30 am and we have at least an hour of work to do to get ready to leave in 5.5 hours!!!!!! I would just say that we could sleep on the plane but of course the kids are in bed so they will be rested for tomorrow's flight. Looks like it might be quality time with Grandma and Grandpa at 30,000 feet.

Our next post should be from CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You want us there when????

So the phone rings the other day and it is the travel coordinator from the agency telling me that they have been notified by their Beijing officce that the province officials want us there earlier. Of corse, he doesn't know how mch earlier or why or when and China being completely opposite our time zone- he can't find anything out as it is 3am in Beijing. He assures us it will be no problem since we were arriving early anyway (never mind that the reason we were arriving early is to actually get to see some of the famous sites in China- like say the Great Wall I've heard so mch about) So Wednesday he calls me at work and says we have to be in the province on May 9 so we need to arrive in Beijing on May 7 (which we were doing anyway) and that we should plan on attending agency sessions, etc on May 8. The Great Wall is looking very unlikely at this point. Luckily our fabulous travel agent (who I am sure is convinced that I am crazy) was able to find us seats on the May 4 flight to Beijing (if we were willing to pay United $200 a ticket for them to re-ticket us)- Great Wall here we come. I guess it is finally time to start packing since I have two less days than I was planning on. The best part is that we are going to get D 4 days earlier and we get to spend 10 days exploring her province-which after the shock of the change wore off- is a pretty cool thing!! I am hoping with all the extra time at least one of us might get a chance to travel to her orphanage. I doubt it as unless we can find a flight there it is 12 hours away but I would love to be able to have pictures of it.

and overshadowed by all this is our Visa 37 cable has been received in Guangzhou by the US Consulate and our passports and entry visas have been sent to us so we are (from a paperwork standpoint) ready to go

On a completely unrelated note- the "u" key on my keyboard is sticking badly. I have tried to proofread but if a word doesn't make sense try sticking a 'u' somewhere in it.

I-171h and other fun government forms

We finally received our new I-171h from USCIS this week. This is the piece of paperwork that says that the US government has declared we are fit parents and are approved to adopt one infant. It was our last piece of paperwork and we were on pins and needles waiting for it to come. But of course- there is always a complication- we found out though that until the local office of USCIS sends our visa 37 notification to the consulate at Guangzhou we are still stuck. Our original visa 37 cable was never received at the consulate but our agency said not to worry since we had to get a new approval anyway. Hopefully early next week, they will be able to confirm with the consulate that the cable is there. If it is not we get to begin to make lots of phone calls (likely to congress people) and hopefully we can get it there before we leave. Otherwise, we will leave for China without knowing for sure we will be able to come home. We are also waiting for our visas as well- if there is one theme to this whole adoption journey it would be wait and wait and wait some more. The visas should arrive at some point this week. Our travel agent has reported they have been sent to the Chinese embassy.
Less than 2 weeks to go. We have the last 2 major construction projects starting this week (and one is only on the exterior thankfully) so by Friday I will hopefully have the "after" pictures to post

Home Improvement- What could go wrong? part 2

So we are in the process of getting the carpets installed. Today the new playroom, the upstairs hall and the steps were scheduled. The installers installed all the pad and then hauled in 80 square yards of carpeting (3 very large pieces). After they finally got it up in the loft (no small feat as they had to lift it up and over all the railings since they couldn't just carry it up due to the switchback on the stairs) they went to lunch. B. comes down and says to me "I'm not sure the color is right" Now the fact that B. could recognize it was the wrong color should tell you how wrong it was. All 80 yards are this ugly orange color (if it had been shag it would have been a perfect carpet from the 70's) I called the salesman who came over with the sample to assure me it was indeed the right color but when he compared what it was to what it should be.... not even close. So the poor installers had to haul it back out and tomorrow they are hopefully bringing the right color carpet.

But on the plus side- we found another flooring subcontractor who can refinish the wood floors a week earlier (and for half the cost) so hopefully by April 26 everythig will be finished and we will be finishing up the cleaning so we can begin to pack.

T minus 29 days

We have our plane tickets. Our travel agent is Fed Ex-ing them to us. We are leaving on May 6, less than a month away!!!!
We will be in Beijing to sightsee a couple of days early. We have our agency orientation on May 12. On May 13 (MOTHER'S DAY) we will go to Xi'an and expect to receive D at some point that day. We will be in Xi'an completing all the province paperwork and finalizing the adoption with the Chinese authorities until May 18. Hopefully we be able to see some of the cultural sights in Xi'an- especially the Terra Cotta Warriors. On May 18, we will fly to Guangzhou and begin the process of filing all her paperwork with the US authorities. Our consulate appointment in May 21 and her visa will be issued on May 22. We will be flying home on May 23. Our flight (as of now) arrives at 9 pm.